6

I'd always assumed that if you start with safe fish (appropriately stored/frozen), stay with "normal" fish (i.e. don't try to prepare poisonous puffer fish at home), and follow normal food hygiene practices, it was "safe".

And indeed, for years I've been going to the local Japanese market fish counter, and asking for "fish for sushi". The gentleman behind the counter then recommends some fish, optionally slices it for me, wraps it up and I take it home and make various types of sushi.

Is this correct, or am I missing something? Is there some special technique that I need to follow at home to make safe-sushi?

To be clear, I'm not asking about the safety of the fish itself, I trust the Japanese market fish counter to sell me sushi-safe fish.

rumtscho
  • 134,346
  • 44
  • 300
  • 545
Johnny
  • 163
  • 5
  • My question assumes the fish is "safe"... I'm nore interested in what the "way more to sushi safety" is. – Johnny Nov 22 '18 at 16:32
  • That's why I asked. As I said, this point was added as a comment in another question and got 4 upvotes so there are apparently at least 5 people that agree that there is way more to sushi safety so it requires a Japan trained sushi chef to prepare safely. – Johnny Nov 22 '18 at 17:13
  • the word "safe" has two separate meanings. One of them is that food meets all regulations mandated by an official body such as the FDA. The other is that people feel emotionally safe eating it. Our site explicitly does not deal with the second one, since it is terribly subjective. Questions on safety are always interpreted as having the first meaning, and answers about the second meaning are removed. The post you are referring to was a comment, so it was not moderated. Nevertheless, I am 99% sure it is based on a personal feeling, which would make your question off topic. – rumtscho Nov 22 '18 at 19:58
  • Should it have been related to a regulation, then answers should be posted under the existing, older questions about sushi safety we have. So I am going to close this as a duplicate. To be completely fair, I think I will edit a sentence about the safety of sushi beyond the fish source into our canonical sushi safety question, which will be the duplicate target. – rumtscho Nov 22 '18 at 20:00
  • I don't understand how that's a duplicate when the accepted answer on that "duplicate" only addresses the safety of the fish (as do the other answers). I don't understand why you'd edit the question to address general sushi preparation safety 8 years after the question was asked and answered when that question was very specifically asking about the safety of the fish. I tried to be clear here that I'm not asking about fish, this question is about general sushi preparation safety. – Johnny Nov 22 '18 at 21:24
  • Your whole question is based on the premise that there is something about sushi that goes beyond the combination of 1) traditional food safety rules and 2) ensuring that the fish is safe. There is nothing in sushi safety regulations beyond that, meaning that the expected answers would concentrate on subjective criteria - something that we most certainly don't want. I would have closed the question as opinion based, but for the tiny chance that somebody comes up with additional regulations - then it is better that they come under the canonical question. I could close it as a dupe ... – rumtscho Nov 22 '18 at 21:41
  • @rumtscho - sounds like that's the answer then -- you can just post a summary of these sushi regulations. Since there's no other question that addresses general safety or these regulations (except for the one you edited after it's already been answered), this question is not a dupe. Though I still don't see how you can edit an 8 year old question that's already been answered and then claim that it's "canonical". – Johnny Nov 22 '18 at 21:45
  • ... of one of the many "how to make safe sushi" duplicate questions we have had in the past 8 years, then the wording of the duplicate target would be more suitable, but people would have to click through once more to arrive at the one question that has answers. Or, if you prefer, we can reword your question such that it does not attract subjective answers, and then I'll post the answer "there is nothing you are missing" with a link to the FDA sushi regulations for businesses (there is none for home use), and you can see if somebody digs up something else. – rumtscho Nov 22 '18 at 21:45
  • It seems our comments crossed - I call it "canonical" because until now, we have closed multiple "how to make safe sushi" questions with that one as a target. Everybody perceives them as equivalent, because they happen to be equivalent in reality. – rumtscho Nov 22 '18 at 21:46
  • OK, reopened and answered. But I also edited, else people would be tempted to give answers explaining the comment you were referencing. That's what I mainly wanted to avoid by the closure. – rumtscho Nov 22 '18 at 22:01

1 Answers1

4

The safety of making sushi at home really boils down to

  1. Ensuring that your fish meets the criteria for sushi-suitable fish, and
  2. Following standard food safety practices for everything else.

There are regulations meant for businesses which confirm that, you can find them under Guidance for Processing Sushi in Retail Operations. You cannot apply them 1:1 as a consumer (for example, I don't know of a way to ensure that your fish was not "harvested from known or designated areas that are problematic for ciguatera"), but they give you a maximum framework you can try to reach. You can see that there are no gotchas there, just what you'd expect for any food, plus fish advice.

For getting fish that is as safe as possible, please refer to this question: Can store bought salmon be used for sashimi?. For standard food safety practices beyond that, pleases see our writeup on food safety, https://cooking.stackexchange.com/tags/food-safety/info.

There is one deviation which is allowed by the guidance above: if you are willing to measure the pH of your rice-and-vinegar mixture, you are allowed to keep the rice inside the danger zone. However, this is not an extra safety restriction, but rather a kind of special dispensation - if you refrigerate the rice promptly as per standard food safety rules, it becomes irrelevant. For home cooking, there is no need to keep a tub of rice on the counter all the time.

rumtscho
  • 134,346
  • 44
  • 300
  • 545